Wireless drops out when running on battery - Power Mgmt issue

English Network/Internet
#1

Hi All,

I just got a Lenovo Thinkpad x100e. Everything seems to be running well, with this exception of the wireless adapter. When running on the battery the wireless runs for about 30secs to 1 minute before dropping out. The NetworkManager says it’s still connected, but nothing goes across the network. Disabling and then re-enabling the wireless works, for about 30 sec to a minute. The weird thing is this behavior DOESN’T occur when the power adapter is plugged in.

I’m wondering what power management parts I should be looking at? I’m running OpenSuSE 11.2, KDE 4.3.5 if that helps.

Mike D

#2

On 02/27/2010 03:06 PM, mdoerner wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I just got a Lenovo Thinkpad x100e. Everything seems to be running
> well, with this exception of the wireless adapter. When running on the
> battery the wireless runs for about 30secs to 1 minute before dropping
> out. The NetworkManager says it’s still connected, but nothing goes
> across the network. Disabling and then re-enabling the wireless works,
> for about 30 sec to a minute. The weird thing is this behavior DOESN’T
> occur when the power adapter is plugged in.
>
> I’m wondering what power management parts I should be looking at? I’m
> running OpenSuSE 11.2, KDE 4.3.5 if that helps.

The driver probably does not support power save mode. FWIW, the problem is not
with mac80211. My p54usb, RTL8187L, RTL8187B, and b43 modules all work fine on
battery.

You might try playing with the iwconfig power settings with

sudo /usr/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 power all

or

sudo /usr/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 power off

#3

I’ll try that and let you know what happens…

Mike D

#4

Nope didn’t help. Drops out after a minute or so. After it dropped out, I plugged the cord back in, everything came back up…

I’ll post the iwconfig data in another post, something won’t let me post it (software says I have 5 images in my post, I count none, dude…)

Mike D

#5

THIS FORUM SOFTWARE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO WORK WITH. I CANNOT POST ANY IWCONFIG OUTPUT BECAUSE THE FORUM BELIEVED THERE 5 IMAGES WITHIN THE TEXT (THERE ARE NONE).

FIX THE BLOODY SOFTWARE!!!

Mike D

#6

Hi
Use the code tags around your output.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.42-0.1-default
up 19 days 19:17, 4 users, load average: 0.05, 0.18, 0.17
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 190.53

#7

OK, let’s see if this goes…


mdoerner@linux-AMDNEO:~> sudo /usr/sbin/iwconfig
root's password:
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     802.11bg  ESSID:"Kalashnikitty"  Nickname:"rtl8191SEVA2"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.447 GHz  Access Point: [text deleted]
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s
          Retry:on   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:[text deleted]   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=64/100  Signal level=-70 dBm  Noise level=-102 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

mdoerner@linux-AMDNEO:~>
#8

Thanks for the workaround! Someone still needs to fix the bloody software though…

PS I’ve also switched off IPv6 because I heard that may cause problems also…FWIW.

Mike D

#9

On 02/28/2010 07:16 AM, mdoerner wrote:
>
> Thanks for the workaround! Someone still needs to fix the bloody
> software though…
>
> PS I’ve also switched off IPv6 because I heard that may cause problems
> also…FWIW.

IPv6 won’t change the power issue.

May I inquire what “bloody software” should be fixed? You told us what computer
model you have, but you NEVER told us what wireless device you have. You are too
quick to cast fault on everything!

#10

Uhhhh, the “bloody software” I was referring to the FORUM software. Nothing to do with linux.

The wireless adapter is shown in the iwconfig output, Realtek rtl8191SEVA2 which is built in the the Thinkpad x100e. I compiled the driver using the instructions off Realtek’s driver software rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0014.0115.2010.tar.gz. Ran make, make install. Works well, but the connection drops out when on battery within 30secs to 1 min. This doesn’t occur when I’m plugged into the wall outlet.If there’s another driver out there I should look at, lemmie know.

Anything in Power Saving I should look at SPECIFICALLY?

Mike D

#11

On 02/28/2010 11:56 AM, mdoerner wrote:
>
> Uhhhh, the “bloody software” I was referring to the FORUM software.
> Nothing to do with linux.
>
> The wireless adapter is shown in the iwconfig output, Realtek
> rtl8191SEVA2 which is built in the the Thinkpad x100e. I compiled the
> driver using the instructions off Realtek’s driver software
> rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0014.0115.2010.tar.gz. Ran make, make install. Works
> well, but the connection drops out when on battery within 30secs to 1
> min. This doesn’t occur when I’m plugged into the wall outlet.If there’s
> another driver out there I should look at, lemmie know.
>
> Anything in Power Saving I should look at SPECIFICALLY?

If you are using a vendor driver, then you need to complain to the vendor about
it. No one here knows anything about it. If the driver were part of the kernel,
it would be in the staging area, and would print a message something like:

“module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been
warned.”

#12

Okie-dokie,

I’ll contact the vendor and we’ll see what happens. Thanks.

Mike D

#13

This forum, as with many other forums, accepts html tags in the postings. This is considered by many to be a feature. The downside is that posted text containing brackets or braces can confuse the html render engine. The output from ifconfig that you posted contained eight such bracket pairs thus the html engine complained because it though you were trying to post a picture. It is the normal caution to wrap html code tags around any such text. Though I admit the error message was unhelpful, it was a case of garbage-in-garbage-out.

Also please be aware that many of the readers here are just users of the openSuSE software like yourself and would have no idea how to “fix the software” as you so politely request we do. Such requests would be more appropriately directed to the Forum Comments section of this site.

#14

On 03/01/2010 04:06 PM, starbolin wrote:
> Also please be aware that many of the readers here are just users of
> the openSuSE software like yourself and would have no idea how to “fix
> the software” as you so politely request we do. Such requests would be
> more appropriately directed to the Forum Comments section of this site.

The request to “Fix it” was particularly inappropriate as the driver in question
is vendor written, and not part of a normal Linux kernel!

#15

Well, the issue is resolved. The vendor (Realtek) had an updated version that they emailed me. I did have to remove the /usr/src/linux-2.6.31.12-0-obj directory (and that path may be misspelled, but it was the directory that ended in -obj) because the 1st re-install failed due to the old driver code lurking in there someplace.

As for the comments regarding the “features” of this forum not working correctly, I stand by my original comments, as the “problems” encountered on this forum do not occur on NVNews, Nvidia’s forums, or any other forum software I’ve used.

Spin it any way you want. A “feature” that inhibits functionality is called a “bug”. Fix it or fail, your choice.

Mike D

#16

And that makes what difference? What identifies a kernel bug, vs a KDE bug, vs a vendor bug? And why does that disqualify me from asking the question? This is the Wireless forum, right? You might have a point if this was the kernel forum.

Mike D

#17

On 03/01/2010 07:46 PM, mdoerner wrote:

> And that makes what difference? What identifies a kernel bug, vs a KDE
> bug, vs a vendor bug? And why does that disqualify me from asking the
> question? This is the Wireless forum, right? You might have a point if
> this was the kernel forum.

Built-in drivers ARE a part of the kernel. Any out-of-kernel drivers are not
part of the kernel. No developer will spend any time on such pieces of code. It
does not matter if the driver in question is for wireless, graphics, or some odd
disk controller.